Can’t stay away from your social media feeds or ignore cable news? You’re not only harming your own mental health, you’re also harming the economy.

In fact, the distractions from Election Day madness — including, of course, time away from work to vote — are expected to be so extreme that they could cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars per hour this year. In other words, this election creates winners and losers before we even know the results.

One-two punch

Unlike most developed democracies, national elections in the United States are held on one business day. This means that the journey of voting, doom scrolling, and then suffering/overcoming anxiety attacks takes place during work hours. Twenty-eight different states require employers to give their employees time to vote; A recent survey of human resources professionals from executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 60% of companies already allow employees to take time out to vote without penalty. In Detroit, the United Auto Workers and the three major automakers that employ them agreed in their latest contract to make Election Day a holiday. In short: civic responsibility comes with a trade-off when it comes to economic flight.

On the other hand, the election is testing the nerves of the electorate, since almost 70% of American adults consider it a significant source of stress, according to a recent report from the American Psychological Association. The state of high political anxiety led, at least briefly, to weak consumer spending:

• According to a recent Ipsos survey of about 1,000 American adults, 47% said election stress causes them to spend less and save more (the remaining 53% likely factored Election Day binge eating into their counter-response). From Marriott to Target, consumer-facing companies spent the last earnings season warning of an election week slowdown.
• At the same time, the magnitude of a productivity slowdown on Election Day could be staggering. An analysis of Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that productivity losses could reach $3.5 billion per hour (the company previously estimated that distracted sports fans drained the economy by $2.1 billion because of March Madness this year).

All eyes are on them: The political malaise has been a boon for some, but not all, in the media world. In an earnings conference call Monday, Fox Corp. credited increased political campaign advertising with helping boost its revenues beyond Wall Street expectations and boosting its profits — $832 million in the quarter — to double what they were there a year ago. In the meantime, BIA Advisory Services Estimates a whopping $11.7 billion will be spent on local political advertising, a huge boon for local TV stations. Do less well: The New York Timeswhich reported a slowdown in digital subscriber growth in its earnings report Monday, triggering a 7% share price drop. The word of tomorrow: GLOOM.